Hon. Peter Harder: Honourable senators, I rise to support Bill S-239, the Canadian prosperity act. This is Senator Klyne’s Senate public bill proposing to promote internal trade and more competitive regulations in Canada through modest changes to the Competition Act. The bill aims to complement the first ministers’ joint statement on international trade to, in their words, “. . . build a more resilient and streamlined Canadian economy and to unlock Canada’s full economic potential.” Indeed, our first ministers are making great progress on internal trade, as I’ll outline.
This bill would complement those efforts. Bill S-239 would enhance the mandate of the Competition Bureau to make recommendations to reduce internal trade barriers, including unnecessarily anti-competitive regulations.
Answering the Competition Bureau’s 2023 request, the bill would also require federal regulators to respond to their recommendations within four months. The bill would encourage provincial, territorial and municipal regulators to do so as well by inviting a response and publishing the results. Other than federal regulators, the purpose of inviting rather than requiring a response is to respect cooperative federalism.
Overall, the bill aims to help achieve lower prices, better products, more choices, more jobs and business opportunities and greater productivity and prosperity for Canadians — all this by using existing resources at no additional taxpayer cost. Amid an affordability crisis, what are we waiting for in respect of changing our legislation to enhance competitiveness?
As Senator Klyne told us, this is pro-consumer, pro-business legislation. It can foster improvements across a range of sectors, including professional services, alcohol sales, telecommunications, aviation and more. Canadian wallets stand to benefit.
To be clear, the bill doesn’t challenge the public goals of regulations. It aims to regulate better, with more internal trade and competition and in a manner consistent with underlying goals, such as national security. Through this bill, the Competition Bureau, an independent and expert agency, can help develop a road map towards achieving the first ministers’ shared vision of a more unified and prosperous Canadian marketplace. In effect, this bill marshals the Competition Bureau’s deep expertise in creating open and competitive markets and directs it towards the challenges facing internal trade.
Of importance, Bill S-239 would not force any changes on any jurisdiction respecting cooperative federalism. Indeed, the Competition Bureau already makes recommendations to federal, provincial and territorial regulators to reduce barriers to competition, with over 90 such submissions since 2015. This bill would enhance that work, raising the profile of recommendations with accountability to the public from regulators. At the end of the day, policy decisions would still rest with elected officials, as is appropriate.
Colleagues, the best argument for this bill bears repeating: It is about lower prices, lower prices, lower prices. A tip of the hat to our colleague Marty Klyne on this initiative. This bill is innovative and an example of the Senate’s think-tank function.
Most importantly, Bill S-239 furthers a pressing goal for our moment: building one independent and thriving Canadian economy. As Senator Klyne said, experts in competition and internal trade — including two former Commissioners of Competition — have told us this bill will help in a significant way. Accordingly, this bill is an opportunity for the Senate to contribute to Canada’s economic mission, so let’s do our part.
There’s a lot at stake. In January, a report by the International Monetary Fund, or IMF, concluded that knocking down internal trade barriers can boost Canada’s real GDP by nearly 7% over the long run, which is roughly $210 billion. Our first ministers noted this finding in a joint statement on January 19, 2026. The IMF report found that Canada’s internal trade barriers are equivalent to a 9% tariff nationally. In that report — with contributions from the University of Calgary economist Trevor Tombe — the authors Federico Díez and Yuanchen Yang concluded:
The opportunity is now. The prize is large. Turning thirteen economies into one is no longer just an aspiration—it is an economic imperative.
Senators, to put things in perspective, according to the Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer, $210 billion is over three times the federal deficit of the recently concluded fiscal year. Imagine what this infusion of wealth could do for Canadians in terms of pay, investments, public services, tax cuts and spending power.
With this in mind, let me speak to three more subjects: first, recent developments through the first ministers’ joint leadership on this subject; second, the importance of formalizing an internal trade advisory function to regulators so that this work has a life independent of specific political actors or circumstances; and, third, this bill’s inspiration in the work of the Senate Prosperity Action Group.
First, on the leadership of our first ministers, Senator Klyne noted the historic joint statement by Prime Minister Carney and all premiers in March of last year towards removing barriers to internal trade “. . . so that goods, services, and workers can move freely.”
Over the past year, across the federation, we’ve seen a host of legislation, agreements and announcements aimed at dropping many internal trade barriers and fostering competition. Last June, Parliament passed the Free Trade and Labour Mobility in Canada Act through Bill C-5. In November, all provinces, territories and the federal government signed an agreement to drop interprovincial trade barriers on many goods, except food and alcohol. Led by Nova Scotia, most provinces have now announced legislation aimed at mutual recognition of goods, including food, services and investments with other jurisdictions that pass similar laws.
In addition, the federal government has taken action to promote competition in the banking and telecom sectors. Manitoba has passed legislation aimed at boosting competition in the grocery sector. Our first ministers met again this January and reaffirmed their commitment to a unified “Team Canada” approach, including on internal trade. They also recognized that these actions could significantly add dollars to the Canadian economy over time, as I referenced earlier.
According to their joint statement, the first ministers discussed recent accomplishments to strengthen internal trade, such as the Canadian Mutual Recognition Agreement on the Sale of Goods and a Memorandum of Understanding on Interprovincial Trucking to get Canadian goods moving across the country.
The first ministers also highlighted facilitating interprovincial movement in the housing and construction sectors as well as efforts to further reduce barriers in the food, agriculture and alcohol sectors, all aimed at lowering costs for Canadians.
In March, the federal, provincial and territorial governments’ internal trade ministers met to build on this momentum. There are a few highlights of the meeting that I would like to reference:
The ministers committed to expanding the Mutual Recognition Agreement to services by the end of 2026, in line with the first ministers’ direction. The ministers noted continued progress on implementation of the Mutual Recognition Agreement on the Sale of Goods, with a new user guideline now available. The ministers welcomed the entry into force of the new financial services chapter of the Canadian Free Trade Agreement, a significant milestone for the financial services sector. The ministers heard from the co-chairs of the Federal, Provincial and Territorial Forum on Housing in regard to alignment practices and approvals around new building materials and prefabricated housing. The ministers committed to completing negotiations to strengthen labour and mobility provisions. They heard about progress on implementing credential recognition for tradespeople through the use of digital verification by the spring of 2027. They noted work being done by agriculture ministers to reduce trade barriers in food and agriculture within Canada, and they reaffirmed their commitment to implementing direct-to-consumer sales of alcoholic beverages across the country.
Of note, this was also the first Committee on Internal Trade session chaired by Nunavut.
Senators, this is all fantastic news. To this point, Corinne Pohlmann of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business recently told the Standing Committee on International Trade in the other place that Canada made more progress in 2025 on internal trade than in the eight years following the signing of the Canadian Free Trade Agreement in 2017. She said:
Governments deserve recognition for that momentum.
Our message to you today is straightforward: Small businesses still do not experience Canada as one open domestic market. Much of the recent progress remains uneven, incomplete and fragile. . . .
With Bill S-239, we can envisage how the independent and expert recommendations of the Competition Bureau can support our federation’s efforts on an ongoing and long-term basis.
This brings me to my second point: the importance of formalizing an internal trade advisory function to regulators in statute so that this work has a life independent of specific political actors or circumstances of one moment.
Inspiration sometimes comes from uninspiring sources. In facing current challenges, our first ministers have answered the call of the hour brilliantly. Together, they have achieved a breakthrough on internal trade, a long-sought-after Holy Grail of the policy wonk community.
Complementing this leadership, this bill is an opportunity to make the promotion of internal trade a core government function tied to competition policy. As Ryan Manucha of the C.D. Howe Institute has commented, Bill S-239 would align Canada with international best practices, as seen in Australia and the European Union. In the Canadian context, the bill would take the route of formalizing an internal trade advisory function to regulations.
In short, this bill can give our first ministers’ remarkable achievements over the past 16 months greater permanence, resilience and effect through the superb work and proven reputation of the Competition Bureau, while respecting the structure of our unique federation.
Senators, I want to close by thanking Senator Klyne for drawing the connection between this bill and the Senate Prosperity Action Group, an initiative close to my heart. This was a working group of 12 senators from all groups active in the Senate during the pandemic, culminating in our 2021 report and an event in this chamber, hosting the Right Honourable Joe Clark and other distinguished voices. Two of the action group’s key recommendations were regulatory reform and implementation of interprovincial free trade.
In my view, the necessity of those goals became clearer during one crisis. Now, the opportunity to achieve them has arisen during another.
Our First Ministers have led the way. This practical bill can help us build the road to a more independent and prosperous Canada together, piece by piece, step by step. Therefore, let’s get Bill S-239 to committee. Hopefully, this can be done so this work can advance at the pace that Canada needs.